NASA finally launches test rocket that will carry supplies to space station
A company contracted by NASA to deliver supplies to the International Space Station has made its third effort to launch a test rocket from the East Coast on Sunday.
This time the launch proved successful.
The unmanned Antares rocket blasted off Sunday from Wallops Island on Virginia's Eastern Shore at 5 pm.
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Takeoff: Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Antares rocket lifts off from the NASA facility on Wallops Island, Virginia on Sunday, April 21, 2013
Test run: The rocket will eventually deliver supplies to the International Space Station
Evening flight: The unmanned Antares rocket blasted off Sunday from Wallops Island on Virginia's Eastern Shore at 5 pm
The launch by Dulles-based Orbital Sciences Corp. was designed to test whether a practice payload could reach orbit and safely separate from the rocket.
Whereas upper level winds were too strong to attempt a launch on Saturday, they were substantially weaker on Sunday, according to the Washington Post.
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Prior to the rocket’s launch, NASA said there was an 80 per cent chance that weather would permit lift-off.
Orbital plans to do a test run to the space station this summer and hopes to make the first of eight deliveries with its Cygnus cargo ship in the fall.
Incredible footage shows Antares rocket FINALLY taking off from...
Previous attempts: Orbital had made two previous efforts to launch the test rocket to no avail
A new day: The sun rises over Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Antares rocket as it sits on the launch pad at the NASA facility on Wallops Island on Sunday
A previous Antares rocket launch from NASA’s Wallops Island flight facility was aborted on Wednesday due to premature separation of one of the umbilicals from the second stage of the rocket.
Orbital, based near Washington, D.C., is one of two companies contracted to supply the space station by NASA, which ended its shuttle program in 2011.
California-based SpaceX completed its third supply run to the station last month.
Going forward: Orbital is planning a test run to the space station this summer and hopes to make the first of eight deliveries with its Cygnus cargo ship in the fall
